If you are correct and this is the case here, is there a known workaround to address the excessive charging, or do I just need to suck it up and pay $16 a month in order to use the Tivo?

Supposedly the $1.50 "tivo 2nd card" charge was present to address this, enabling an actual charge item for the 2nd card (so the billing system can track and enable both), but that shouldn't require an addnl digital outlet charge.
If their system can't bill it right still, you might have to eat the ADO charge, but (from other VA poster above?) you shouldn't have BOTH the $1.50 Tivo charge, and the ADO.
Push them to check for the special corporate memo re the Tivo $1.50 charge/account setup for dual cards on single device.

some of this may be regional pricing, but more likely it's simply ignorance/incorrect setup on comcast's end.

Called Comcast on Thursday to get them to fix the account - I was being billed for two "additional outlets" at $7.95 each. The CSR said she adjusted those charges off the bill and made corrections to properly account for the cablecards. She promised that the cards would continue to work properly. Wrong... Starting Friday, a bunch of digital channels have now become "black screens" (no sound or video).

Called customer support several times, and got the same story each time. Their knowledgebase now says not to send a "hit" to re-initialize the cards under any circumstances because "sending a hit will fry the cards, guaranteed". They have to send a tech.

The tech will arrive Thursday, supposedly with new cards. Super.

Exact same thing happened to me, Comcast of Union NJ. They took off the extra outlet charge, and lo and behold, my second cablecard is missing channels. I have to wait until next Tuesday for a tech. Please post back how it goes, so I know what to tell my tech guy.

Exact same thing happened to me, Comcast of Union NJ. They took off the extra outlet charge, and lo and behold, my second cablecard is missing channels. I have to wait until next Tuesday for a tech. Please post back how it goes, so I know what to tell my tech guy.

I can't wait for FIOS to get to town.

Will do. (I'm dealing with Comcast of Union also).

I've got FIOS Internet and phone already but am staying away from FIOS TV as I'm getting the impression that there are more issues to be had with that than with cable.

Called customer support several times, and got the same story each time. Their knowledgebase now says not to send a "hit" to re-initialize the cards under any circumstances because "sending a hit will fry the cards, guaranteed". They have to send a tech.
(

FYI this is complete BS. I've had problems with my cablecards twice (usually after a power outage) when I lost the cable channels and both times I called Comcast and they entered a "Hit" and a "CCV Hit" and it fixed them. Nothing is fried and everything works. Don't tell them you have a TIVO, just ask them to do this.

FYI this is complete BS. I've had problems with my cablecards twice (usually after a power outage) when I lost the cable channels and both times I called Comcast and they entered a "Hit" and a "CCV Hit" and it fixed them. Nothing is fried and everything works. Don't tell them you have a TIVO, just ask them to do this.

I certainly won't argue that it's not BS, and I'm sure you've been successful in the past. Perhaps you will be successful in the future also.

Nonetheless, I called them three separate times over 2 days. I never mentioned that I had a TiVo. Each time I just asked them to send a hit to the cards, and each time they refused. Each time they said the exact same thing. This is apparently a new procedure they have been asked to follow.

Comcast changed around their digital channel numbers, but TiVo didn't pick them up the new numbers and ended up recording the wrong thing. It still didn't recognize the new channel numbers after I made it connect and download the guide data and also repeated the Guided Setup.

Have any of you experienced something like this? Is this a CableCard issue or a TiVo problem? Do the CableCards need a "hit" to pick up the new channel mappings, or do I just wait for another day or two until TiVo eventually downloads them?

Thanks, I followed the steps and got the channels to update after 3 tries.

The problem is that the HD channel names are now longer and don't fit properly in the guide, so instead of the usual 4-letter names, the names are like HD - ABC or HD - CBS, which shows up as "HD - ..." in the guide. So I get a bunch of channels in the guide that all have the same indistinguishable "HD - ..." name.

Hi, all. I've had a TiVo (series 2) for a long time, and I just upgraded to an HDTV. I was planning to upgrade to the S3 ASAP, but now, reading this thread, I'm not so certain.

Are you all with the serious problems a minority, or does everyone with CableCards have to deal with this hell? Based on what I'm reading here, this whole CableCard business seems not ready for prime time. But I would hate to lose my TiVo functions for HD.

So, may I ask-- Are there a lot of you out there who have never had any CableCard problems? Or should I plan to take a week off work when I want to get them installed, and look forward to rebooting every day?

So, may I ask-- Are there a lot of you out there who have never had any CableCard problems? Or should I plan to take a week off work when I want to get them installed, and look forward to rebooting every day?

I didn't have any trouble with my CableCards ... install took less than 15 minutes, and they've been working since. My only complaint is the "additional outlet" fee (I think it was $6.99) for the second card.

A nice benefit of the TiVo S3 is that it can record over-the-air HD channels if you have an antenna, and cable cards are not needed for the analog non-premium channels. So you don't necessarily need CableCards to make good use of the S3. If Comcast gave me too much trouble with the CableCards, I was willing and ready to drop all the digital and premium channels, and then use the money I save to rent or buy more DVDs.

Hi, all. I've had a TiVo (series 2) for a long time, and I just upgraded to an HDTV. I was planning to upgrade to the S3 ASAP, but now, reading this thread, I'm not so certain.

Are you all with the serious problems a minority, or does everyone with CableCards have to deal with this hell? Based on what I'm reading here, this whole CableCard business seems not ready for prime time. But I would hate to lose my TiVo functions for HD.

So, may I ask-- Are there a lot of you out there who have never had any CableCard problems? Or should I plan to take a week off work when I want to get them installed, and look forward to rebooting every day?

In case this is relevant-- I live in San Francisco and have Comcast.

The old polls indicate that about 70% had no (or minor) problems with the CableCard installs, and that in most places it depends on the cable companies experience. At this point of time Comcast San Francisco should be in good shape. Given that the 70% included all the "leading-edge" folks who had to deal with teaching their cable company what to do, the no-problem percentage is probably much higher now.

I'm in San Francisco and Comcast installed my cable cards in December. It took multiple appointments (some of which Comcast didn't even show up for!!!) until they got the cable cards properly set up, but since that time I haven't had any problems with them (no spontaneous reboots, no suddenly missing channels, etc).

I don't know whether more Comcast employees are sufficiently trained in terms of properly installing and authorizing cable cards now than there were four months ago. My guess is that the situation has changed only marginally if at all. So, given my experience, I would say that it's quite probable that you'll have to have multiple appointments until you get a competent tech at your home on the phone with a competent person at their head end in order to get your Series 3 working properly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejs2000

Hi, all. I've had a TiVo (series 2) for a long time, and I just upgraded to an HDTV. I was planning to upgrade to the S3 ASAP, but now, reading this thread, I'm not so certain.

Are you all with the serious problems a minority, or does everyone with CableCards have to deal with this hell? Based on what I'm reading here, this whole CableCard business seems not ready for prime time. But I would hate to lose my TiVo functions for HD.

So, may I ask-- Are there a lot of you out there who have never had any CableCard problems? Or should I plan to take a week off work when I want to get them installed, and look forward to rebooting every day?

So, may I ask-- Are there a lot of you out there who have never had any CableCard problems? Or should I plan to take a week off work when I want to get them installed, and look forward to rebooting every day?

FWIW, my CableCard install in Portland, Oregon on Comcast was pain-free. The guy showed up, followed the instructions that came with the unit (there's a sheet explaining how to install the cards -- written for cable company installers), and everything just worked. The S3 has continued to work flawlessly, and I haven't had any of these freaky problems (reboots etc.) I've read about. The only issue I have with it is some user interface functions (like scrolling through lists of programs) is slower than the S2, but I'm assuming that'll be fixed in software at some point.

Exact same thing happened to me, Comcast of Union NJ. They took off the extra outlet charge, and lo and behold, my second cablecard is missing channels. I have to wait until next Tuesday for a tech. Please post back how it goes, so I know what to tell my tech guy.

I can't wait for FIOS to get to town.

The tech showed up, and when I told him they said a hit would "fry" the card, his response was "You're kidding!? I can't believe they would tell you that. The first thing I would do in this situation is call and ask them to send a hit!". He was a very nice guy.

He called dispatch, waited on hold for 30 minutes, told the dispatcher what was happening, then waited on hold for 10 more minutes. The dispatcher then came back told him to see if the channels were working now. I tested, and they were!

He asked the dispatcher what she did, and she said that she added some missing codes to the account. I guess I'll have to wait and see the bill next month to see what she did (because I'm not going to call customer service again and risk them messing something up).

FWIW, I didn't see any indication (161-4 or otherwise) that they sent a hit to the cards. The missing channels just "came back".

I called Comcast on Saturday and was told they don't have cable cards for Tivo, just for TVs. I said that is what I need (2 of em). She scheduled the rep for Tuesday.

Friendly tech came out said he's never setup tivo before so I gave him the instructions. Cable card one went great, Cable card two had a few hiccups but SEEMED to work.

Didn't play around much with the tivo again until yesterday when I noticed sometimes when I change channels I get nothing.

Long story short, when I go look at the cable card configuration menu, Cable card one shows "Authorized" under one of the sub menus (3rd or 4th option) and cable card 2 has an error (not at home can't recall the exact error something about missing program key).

800 number verified the serial number, checked the "host" and sent a signal to the card to reset it. The reset came back with the same error so I've got a tech coming back out and he will most likely replace the card (cause I doubt that he or the 800 tech can do any kind of programming to the card).

This is consistent with my experience. Instead of admitting that the staff at their head end don't all know how to properly authorize cable cards (and do whatever account settings are necessary so that you get the channels you are paying for), Comcast wants to inconvenience the customer by sending out techs to the home again and again to swap out cards. I bet that there is nothing wrong with the card that isn't functioning properly; they just haven't properly authorized it. Another card won't help matters unless the person at their head end working with your tech knows what he/she is doing, so you might end up having multiple tech visits to swap cards again and again until one of them has a direct line to a competent person at their head end.

I do tech support for a living. I would really like to see the systems Comcast is using to authorize cable cards. Either their systems are needlessly complex/convoluted or they simply haven't sufficiently trained all of their staff. It shouldn't take several appointments to get working cable cards unless the cards really are bad. (Missing Program Rekeys and CP Auth issues, allowing some channels to be received and others not, indicate working cards not properly authorized.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsUnderstood

Long story short, when I go look at the cable card configuration menu, Cable card one shows "Authorized" under one of the sub menus (3rd or 4th option) and cable card 2 has an error (not at home can't recall the exact error something about missing program key).

800 number verified the serial number, checked the "host" and sent a signal to the card to reset it. The reset came back with the same error so I've got a tech coming back out and he will most likely replace the card (cause I doubt that he or the 800 tech can do any kind of programming to the card).

Thanks, everybody, for putting my mind at rest. I'll go ahead and order that S3, and if I do have any CC problems, I'll just come here to see how to fix it, because someone else will have had it before. And meanwhile I'll hook the box up to a digital antenna.

I had Comcast out yesterday to replace my DirecTV stuff. I purchased two brand new S3 TIVO units and had them installed and running before the Comcast guy showed up. All they needed was the Cablecard installations. He had never done S3s before, which worried me, but he made a call, read the TIVO instructions (brilliant move, by the way, on TIVO's part to include these) and it all want smoothly.

He did have to go through eight (8!) Cablecards in order to find four that worked though. He said the problem is that other installers just return the bad ones to stock without marking them as bad.

Other than some minor pixillation on the local HiDef channels, which Comcast says is a local (Seattle) problem ('That IS a problem and we ARE working on it...) the system is working flawlessly. The TIVO even found my iTunes on my Mac Pro and I have access to my 5000+ song music collection! How cool is that?

The installer did leave a new working Cablecard behind by accident. ANy thoughts as to what I might do with it? Does it have any value?

The installer did leave a new working Cablecard behind by accident. ANy thoughts as to what I might do with it? Does it have any value?

Uhmm, call them and have them come get it?

Right and wrong aside. there is very little use for them unless the cable company configures them by serial number in their system and associate them with a customer account. Otherwise, cases of CableCARDs would go missing off the Moto and Comcast loading docks.

I do tech support for a living. I would really like to see the systems Comcast is using to authorize cable cards. Either their systems are needlessly complex/convoluted or they simply haven't sufficiently trained all of their staff. It shouldn't take several appointments to get working cable cards unless the cards really are bad. (Missing Program Rekeys and CP Auth issues, allowing some channels to be received and others not, indicate working cards not properly authorized.)

Interesting Update Jeff. The tech who came out (without another cablecard I might add--waiting for a 3rd visit from a tech with a card) made small talk with me while calling the supervisor to authorize the next visit and told me Comcast here doesn't HAVE the ability to TEST the cards (seems pretty easy to me, buy a cable card TV and plug in every card, pre - authorizing it on that TV for testing then reseting it?) so they bring out the cards and hope they work.

Also, to provide the details of the error on my machine the second card showed this under "Conditional Access", about the middle of the screen:

Ah good news! I got a new card in the second slot, I have new cable connectors outside my home, and after initializing the new card I now have both cards "authorized".

Crispy, after reading through this site and others I told the tech my existing card needed a "Cold initiation" or something of that nature and he went through all the other steps while waiting for comcast on the other end to enter the card information. . .think of all the time they could have saved by some training to their staff...IMHO I think the staff are afraid of these cards.

Even though they are (theoretically at least) a technology company, I agree that many of their staff seems "afraid" of these cards. Too bad they cannot attract more employees who are actually interested in technology and want to understand it versus just "having a job." Of course it doesn't help that Comcast potentially stands to benefit when customers get frustrated due to hassles involved getting cable cards properly installed: just get the Comcast DVR instead!

I sense that part of the problem is that there's approximately one person at each Comcast office who understands the meaning of that sentence. And it's not knowledge that's ever disseminated through their customer support system, so unless you eventually make contact with the one person who knows what he's doing (in my experience, it took 6 failed service calls to get to this point), it'll never happen.

I sense that part of the problem is that there's approximately one person at each Comcast office who understands the meaning of that sentence. And it's not knowledge that's ever disseminated through their customer support system, so unless you eventually make contact with the one person who knows what he's doing (in my experience, it took 6 failed service calls to get to this point), it'll never happen.

Actually, it is the same thing they do with an STB. I have read on these forums that a hit to the cableCARDs also affected the STB, so if that IS the case, they should be very familiar with the term.

EDIT: And, the 141 error is because the cableCARD is not resetting like the STB does.

Called comcast to add hbo to my cable cards and the hits did not work. Made an appointment to replace the cards. Called back a second time to speak with someone else about updating the data fields and she told me it wouldn't matter because they are like "memory sticks". Can anyone verify that my cards need to be replaced? They would not perform a cold hit for me over the phone.

Called comcast to add hbo to my cable cards and the hits did not work. Made an appointment to replace the cards. Called back a second time to speak with someone else about updating the data fields and she told me it wouldn't matter because they are like "memory sticks". Can anyone verify that my cards need to be replaced? They would not perform a cold hit for me over the phone.

No they don't need replaced. You just have to find someone that knows what they are doing and knows which HIT to send. I had a tech out and even he couldn't fix the problem. I finally found someone on the phone that knew cable cards and she solved my issue in 30 seconds or less.